Poison Prince
by sdbubbles
Summary: When House bets Cuddy to sing at a hospital fundraiser, he gets more than he bargained for. The guys give him some things to think about.


**A/N: This might be a bit OOC, but it is based loosely on the face that my granfather was an alcoholic and one day he had a heart attack. He realised what he was doing to his body and never had a single drink after that day. It can be done, even if it is painful.**

**Also, I like the idea of the guys getting one over on House while playing his game. This is set sometime during Season 4.**

**The song is 'Poison Prince' by Amy MacDonald, a Scottish singer-songwriter.**

**Sarah x**

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><p>He would have to bet her to sing at the karaoke fundraiser. Little did he know that she had <em>so<em> gotten one over on him. Cuddy and everyone else he ever worked with. It was just a wind-up to most of them, but Cuddy, Wilson, Cameron and even Amber hoped this could get through to House, with an added benefit of seeing his face when they all got on stage.

They all walked on the stage: Cuddy, Wilson, Amber, Taub, Cameron, Chase, Thirteen, Foreman and Kutner. The host announced their names and stated deeply, "They will sing 'Poison Prince.'" The men started singing the first verse while House looked up at them in shock.

_A poetic genius is something I don't see  
>Why would a genius be trippin' on me?<br>And he's looking at me now  
>But what he can't see<em>

The guys knew damn well House was a medical genius, but Wilson, Chase and Foreman along with Cuddy also knew he was a gifted musician. He played piano and guitar, he could sing, he could write his own music. So why would he be so miserable?

House was staring at the line up with his mouth hanging open. He couldn't see the penetrating stares he was receiving from his co-workers and friends. He couldn't see them looking through the mask he wore as a shield.

The women began to sing the next part. They were actually quite good, House had to confess. Cuddy and Amber in particular.

_Is that I'm looking through his eyes  
>So many lies behind his eyes<br>And tell me stories from your past  
>Sing me songs you wrote before <em>

They were playing back all the times he lied to them. The same events were running through House's mind, and they could all see him internally regret some of his actions. The whole lot of them could see his lies through his eyes.

Cuddy and Wilson wished he would share his past a little more. They knew the last thing his childhood was is pleasant, but they thought it might help him find a replacement for his drug habit if he could have something else to rid himself of pain. House knew this, too, and was staring at his knees, just thinking. This had to be a set up.

Wilson knew House had written music and songs before, and would have liked to hear them one day. Wilson knew Cuddy and Cameron would also take a keen interest in it. House's head snapped up and his eyes darted to Wilson, who had a slightly smug look about him. Taub, Chase and Foreman also looked pleased to have cheated House out of his bet. They agreed nothing about whether it had to be solo or not. Even Thirteen and Amber looked like they were having fun together.

_I tell you this my poison prince  
>You'll soon be knockin' on heaven's door<em>

Everyone sang together and leaned forward at him, as if giving him a warning. They were all doctors and they all knew where his addiction would ultimately lead him to: an early grave. House knew it, too. Maybe they were sending him a message. Like, maybe, grow up. Or ditch the Vicodin, perhaps?

_Some kinda poison prince with your eyes in a daze  
><em>_me kinda poison prince your life is like a maze  
>And what we all want, and what we all crave<br>Is an upbeat song so we can dance…  
>The night away<em>

God, they were enjoying this. They had a point though. He never was really all there, because he was almost always on drugs. Even when he wasn't, his mind drifted off once they constructed a theory as to why their patient was dying.

They were all aware of how complicated he was. He was scared to try for people since he did all he could to avoid any form of pain. His mind, his life, was full of complications that nobody but he knew how to simplify.

They were all dancing around and coming away from the stage. The women circled him at his lonely table as they sang the first part of the next verse.

_Oh, who said life was easy?  
>Who said life was fair?<br>Who said nobody gives a damn and nobody even cares?_

Cuddy was bending down in across the table at him and, for once, he was ignoring the view he currently had down her dress. Even stranger, he was actually listening to her. Each of the four women around him had worked hard to get where they were, and he was using drugs to make things easier on himself. Hell, Thirteen had Huntington's. Though she refused to test for it, House knew that she had it. And he though he had a rough time.

It wasn't fair that Cameron's husband had died, but she wasn't on drugs. She wasn't killing herself the way he was. She wasn't feeling sorry for herself. She was moving on and building her new life with Chase.

Thirteen was now sing quietly in House's ear. Nobody had actually said that they didn't care about him. Just because they didn't say it, it didn't mean that they didn't want what was best for him. Now, it was the turn of the men to sin the next part.

_The way you're acting now like you left that all behind  
>You've given up, you've given in<br>Another sucker of that slime_

The way House acted, you'd think that he actually wanted this to be it for him. But he really did want a real relationship like he'd had with Stacy. He behaved in a way that suggested he'd totally forgotten how it felt to be loved, but he never forgot.

He appeared to have given his life up and just wanted not to be in jail and to keep his job. Wilson was staring him right in the face when House realised what he was giving up by losing faith in everyone. Wilson had been divorced over and over and had still found something he adored in Amber. He wasn't soft enough to give. That indicated that House was actually weaker than he let anyone see.

_Some kinda poison prince with your eyes in a daze  
>Some kinda poison prince your life is like a maze<br>And what we all want, and what we all crave  
>Is an upbeat song so we can dance…<br>The night away_

They were all singing and all dancing around him when he took his pills out of his pocket in an automatic reach for his painkiller. Poison Prince…Poison Prince…he was poisoning himself and everyone around him. The pills in his hand suddenly felt wrong. Why was he relying on something that was really killing him? Hadn't he learned from experience with patients that addiction will kill you slowly? What the hell was he doing. Even if he could cut his intake down to a reasonable level…

_Some kinda poison prince with your eyes in a daze  
>Some kinda poison prince your life is like a maze<br>And what we all want, and what we all crave  
>Is an upbeat song so we can dance…<br>The night away_

His colleagues danced back to the stage and House stared at the little orange bottle. He looked at the people who were in the finishing lines of their performance. He met Cuddy's eyes and put the orange bottle in his pocket without taking any caught Amber's eye and they shared a small satisfied smile. He had refrained from taking the tablets. Maybe he was on the road to recovery, or maybe not.

The Poison Prince had a decision to make.

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><p><strong>Hope it was OK!<strong>

**Please review!**

**Sarah x**


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